Pokémon Go Lunar New year event - end date, Growlithe, Electrike, Snubbull and how to get a yellow Poochyena explained

The Pokémon Go Lunar New Year event has arrived, coming hot on the heels of the Valentine's Day event, bringing with it more boosts, increased spawns of dog (or dog-like) Pokémon, and another shiny version, too.

Trainers will encounter increases numbers of Growlithe, Eevee, Electrike and the new shiny yellow Poochyena, all of which give you triple Stardust for catching.

When does the Pokémon Go Lunar New Year event end?

The Lunar New Year event began on 15th February and will end on 17th February, so it's just a short one:

The event will end at 9pm UK time (1pm PST, 4pm EST) - which is when most in-game changes take place, too.

Pokémon Go Lunar New Year event explained

This event is a similarly paired back one to the Valentine's Day event it follows, offering increased spawns for only a handful of creatures. Here's what you can expect:

Increased Eevee spawns

Increased Growlithe spawns

Increased Electrike spawns

Increased Poochyena spawns

Increased Snubbull spawns

3x Stardust from catching all of the above (increasing from 100 Stardust to 300 Stardust)

It's also worth noting Lures will continue to last six hours compared to the standard 30 minutes through until February 23rd.

What's special about these hound Pokémon during the Pokémon Go Lunar New Year event

In the Lunar Calendar, this year is the year of the dog, and that's clearly what's behind the boosted spawns to canine Pokémon - although Eevee is clearly a fox, but we'll let that go.

There's a mix of generations here, with Eevee and Growlithe from the first, and Electrike and Poochyena coming in the more recent Gen 3 updates.

It's worth noting, too, that there's one of each type of weather spawn - Electrike in the rain, Growlithe in the sun, Eevee in partly cloudy weather, Snubbull in cloudy and Poochyena in the Fog, although there are no canine Pokémon that would be boosted in snow and windy weather, so maybe it's a coincidence.

Other than that, the obvious exclusion is Houndour, who even has the word "hound" in its name. There are a couple of reasons why this might be - one is that Dark and Fire-types are already covered by the weather boosts above, another that Houndour was recently boosted in the Halloween event, and finally it could be to do with the sinister imagery it conjours up that Niantic wouldn't want to have associated with the Lunar New Year.

Nonetheless, there are some reasons why it might be worth getting out there and catching as many of these creatures as possible.

First, each catch offers a three-times increase in Stardust. Combine that with currently on-sale Star Pieces and it could end up being a lucrative source of Stardust.

How to get a yellow Poochyena

With the arrival of the Lunar New Year event, according to players on reddit Poochyena appears to have become one of the few creatures to offer a shiny version.

Image credit to redditor Albert83BCN

Like the recently released Swablu and shiny Luvdisc, Poochyena changes its grey body colour into yellowy gold. So far no shiny versions have been found in eggs, but it's assumed shiny Poochyena will continue to be available once the event has ended.

Early signs suggest it's as rare as other shiny creatures in the game - that's to say, very rare - so don't hold out on catching one anytime soon.

That said, you could get as lucky as Albert83BCN (seen above), catching a shiny within the first few sightings. Others have caught hundreds to no avail, so it really is luck of the draw!

Our shiny Pokémon article further explains some of the nuance behind finding these very elusive creature types.